The Three Impostors [Hardcover]

Arthur Machen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004

"It is all more strange than I fancied," he said at last. "It was queer enough what I saw; a man is sauntering along a quiet, sober, everyday London street, a street of grey houses and blank walls, and there, for a moment, a veil seems drawn aside, and the very fume of the pit steams up through the flagstones, the ground glows, red-hot, beneath his feet, and he seems to hear the hiss of the infernal caldron. A man flying in mad terror for his life, and furious hate pressing hot on his steps with knife drawn ready; here, indeed, is horror; but what is all that to what you have told me? I tell you, Phillipps, I see the plot thicken; our steps will henceforth be dogged with mystery, and the most ordinary incidents will teem with significance. You may stand out against it, and shut your eyes, but they will be forced open; mark my words, you will have to yield to the inevitable. A clue, tangled if you like, has been placed by chance in our hands; it will be our business to follow it up. As for the guilty person or persons in this strange case, they will be unable to escape us, our nets will be spread far and wide over this great city, and suddenly, in the streets and places of public resort, we shall in some way or other be made aware that we are in touch with the unknown criminal. Indeed I almost fancy I see him slowly approaching this quiet square of yours; he is loitering at street corners, wandering, apparently without aim, down far-reaching thoroughfares, but all the while coming nearer and nearer, drawn by an irresistible magnetism, as ships were drawn to the Loadstone Rock in the Eastern tale."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Founded in 1906 by J.M. Dent, the Everyman Library has always tried to make the best books ever written available to the greatest number of people at the lowest possible price. Unique editorial features that help Everyman Paperback Classics stand out from the crowd include: a leading scholar or literary critic's introduction to the text, a biography of the author, a chronology of her or his life and times, a historical selection of criticism, and a concise plot summary. All books published since 1993 have also been completely restyled: all type has been reset, to offer a clarity and ease of reading unique among editions of the classics; a vibrant, full-color cover design now complements these great texts with beautiful contemporary works of art. But the best feature must be Everyman's uniquely low price. Each Everyman title offers these extensive materials at a price that competes with the most inexpensive editions on the market-but Everyman Paperbacks have durable binding, quality paper, and the highest editorial and scholarly standards. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080956498X
• ISBN-13: 978-0809564989
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,953,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death In Disguise, August 10, 2003

By 

cameron-vale "cameron-vale" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Three Impostors (Everyman's Library (Paper)) (Paperback)

Horror master Arthur Machen's crowning achievement, a still shocking compendium of interwoven short horror tales. In late 19th century London, a scientist and an unpublished writer join forces as amateur detectives in an attempt to solve a minor but puzzling mystery which ultimately leads to the discovery of a truly diabolical conspiracy. In the course of their investigations, the two men find themselves repeatedly surrendering their attention to a series of seemingly outlandish tales spun by an assortment of eccentric story tellers. The stories, which all deal with imposture of some kind, are only tangentially related to each other, yet offer the somewhat bumbling sleuths important clues to the mystery at hand. Machen builds suspense slowly and methodically, masterfully leading the reader on to a completely unexpected, gruesome climax. Comical, tragic, sophisticated, violent, horrific, and even downright disgusting, THE THREE IMPOSTORS is a classic horror novel of sly deception and wit.

The 1995 Everyman paperback is the only critical edition of this remarkably rich book released to date, offering a scholarly introduction (by editor David Trotter) that carefully details Machen's main influences (chiefly Robert Louis Stevenson) and themes (imposture of various kinds, also derived from Stevenson). A short text summary nicely encapsulates the narrative's various twists and turns. Finally, a section entitled "Machen and His Critics" provides a welcome offering of mostly contemporaneous critical responses to this remarkable book; while many of these reviews were laudatory, quite a few passionately outraged quotes reveal just how shocking THE THREE IMPOSTORS must truly have been in its time.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellently Presented Anthology, September 8, 2000

By 

Nevzat Evrim Onal - See all my reviews

This review is from: Three Impostors (Everyman's Library (Paper)) (Paperback)

Arthur Machen can easily be described as one of the writers who provided the foundation to the 20th century fantasy and horror literature. This one is a great collection of horror stories, most of which has a quite Lovecraftian style. If you are new to Machen, and/or like stories with a tinge of "Mythos Horror" in them, you'll definetely like this one.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still Impressive After All These Years, March 20, 2011

By 

Chip Kaufmann (Asheville, N.C. United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Three Impostors (Paperback)

I first read Arthur Machen (pronounced MACK-ken) back when I was in college in the early 1970s. I was already a fan of supernatural fiction especially the Victorian ghost story as exemplified by M.R. James and Sheridan Le Fanu. I first found out about Machen when I saw him listed as an influence on H.P. Lovecraft and I had read one of the stories from THE THREE IMPOSTERS, the often excerpted THE NOVEL OF THE WHITE POWDER and was suitably impressed. THE THREE IMPOSTERS, in its entirety, is a truly remarkable work that links several diverse stories into a framing story of amateur sleuths trying to solve a tantilizing mystery. The writing is suitably colorful, the imagery is astonishly vivid, and the climax is as gruesome as anything that I have come across in books or movies since then.

Machen crops up in fantasy/horror anthologies a lot especially his stories THE GREAT GOD PAN, THE BOWMEN and THE WHITE POWDER which is the most terrifying of the tales told in THE THREE IMPOSTERS. While that story can certainly stand on its own as can another called THE NOVEL OF THE BLACK SEAL, they really need to be read within the context of the entire book so that you can really appreciate Machen's skill at constructing a narrative that is deceptively simple yet surprisingly complex. My old Ballentine paperback has seen better days since I first bought it in 1972 so I am glad to see THREE IMPOSTERS in an improved edition as well as available on Kindle, a development that would no doubt have pleased Machen who being an author, journalist, essayist, and translator, would have wanted to reach as wide a reading public as possible.